


and i'll find your lips in the streetlights

by bex_xo



Series: so hold my hand honey you like making me wait for it [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Because your author was a stage manager for high school theater, Can I make it any more obvious?, F/M, Fluff, He was a boy, I couldn't help myself, I'm really bad at tags, Mr. Lannister is probably one of my favorite bits in here tbh, Pod is a stage manager for the high school theater, Popular Girl x Nerdy Boy AU, Prompt Fill, everyone is probably OOC but whatever, living dangerously not beta'd, no this is not that the tags were just too good to pass up, she was a girl, well kinda?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 22:59:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13913955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bex_xo/pseuds/bex_xo
Summary: Prompt: high school popular kid/nerd auIn which Arya, a high school sophomore with a sudden burst of popularity thanks to her older sister Sansa winning student body President, befriends and inevitably falls for nerdy high school senior Podrick Payne after sharing a study table in the library during free period.title from Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen





	and i'll find your lips in the streetlights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bythunder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bythunder/gifts).



> As most things do, this one got away from me in word count and definitely is a one shot instead of a little drabble. It's very cute and fluffy here guys, go big or go home I guess? As the tags say, this is kinda OOC but it was so much fun to write. I should mention the Jonsa is really only mentioned in passing and we don't even SEE Jon in this fic, so if that's what your here for, maybe just stick around and read it anyway? Or don't, it's up to you!
> 
> I hope you enjoy it Kal! ❤︎

The moment her older sister Sansa was named Student Body President, Arya Stark knew one thing for sure.  
  
That her social stock was going to raise tenfold, and she was going to be one of the most popular sophomores at North Kings Landing High.  
  
Okay, so maybe she wasn’t exactly hurting in the popularity department to begin with, Robb, her older brother, once told her that popularity came with the territory, by which he meant the last name Stark.  
  
But outside the water polo team and her dance team, she was only popular by association. Inevitably every few months someone would see her scampering out of the backseat of Sansa’s car and cozy on up to her for a few weeks in an attempt to get in her sister’s good graces and magically deemed worthy of the proverbial queen bee of NKLH.  
  
Sansa was typically the one to clue her in on it too.  
  
So of course, when she finds herself sharing a study table during her free period in the library with a boy she’s certain she’s never seen, she’s a little more than surprised when the boy in question pulls his ear buds out and greets her by name.  
  
“Pardon?” She questions as she raises her eyes from where she’s scribbling furiously across in her social studies notebook.  
  
The boy blushes, red from the tips of his ears all the way down to under the collar of his black t-shirt.  
  
“I said good morning Arya.” He half mumbles, eyebrows furrowing together, not quite being able to meet her eyes from across the table.  
  
Arya gives pause, because he looks so achingly familiar and yet she really has no clue who this admittedly cute boy is or why he would know her name.  
  
“Uhh. Good morning…” She trails off, hoping eyebrow boy catches on to her not knowing who he is.  
  
“Ohh. Oh um. Sorry. Podrick. My name. My name is Podrick. And I probably sound like an idiot. I’m just going to put these ear buds back in and leave you alone then.”  
  
The boy, Podrick, stumbles through the introduction and hastily shoves the aforementioned ear buds back into his ears before he slumps even further down into his chair and picks back up his copy of the _AP English Language and Composition_ book she has seen Sansa spend hours pouring over at the kitchen table with the help of Robbs friend Jon Snow. It’s then when Arya realizes that Podrick must also be a senior like her sister, and she can’t help but wonder why he’s even making an attempt to talk to her.  
  
“Excuse me, Podrick?” She begins, “You don’t happen to be friends with my sister by any chance?”  
  
Podrick looks up the moment he hears her say his name, brown eyes wide as if he’s surprised she even acknowledged his presence when he’s the one that started all of this in the first place.  
  
“Uh, we take a couple classes together if that’s what you’re asking? Sansa and I aren’t exactly friends.”  
  
“Oh. I see.” Is all she can come up with, and rather lamely at that.  
  
“Which is not to say your sister isn’t very nice, because Sansa is nice to everyone, how else would she have won student body president so decisively? It’s just, uh, we don’t exactly run in the same err… social circles.” He tells her with a grimace.  
  
“What social circle _do_ you run in? I feel like I should know you. Have I seen you at a party or something?”  
  
“Uhhhh… probably not. Unless you’ve crashed an after party with the theater kids, which I know you haven’t, because I would _definitely_ have noticed.”  
  
At that Arya can’t help but blush. Boys flirted with Sansa all the time, but it’s not like she had many knocking down her door to get her attention these days.  
  
“I can’t say I have.” She says as she brushes a stray curl back behind her ear, a half smile graces her face.  
  
“Well, you should.” Podrick says with a full blown grin and woah, Arya did not expect him to be so cute.  
  
“Next time.” She replies as she feels her face grow red hot.  
  
As she shoves her own ear buds in, she swears she hears Podrick laugh, but when she glances back up his nose is again buried deep in his book.  
  
The librarian, Mr. Lannister, not the dwarf brother but the brother who lost his hand in a tragic accident involving automatic moving shelves when he worked at South Kings Landing High, makes his way around the library informing the students who are making use of the study tables that the period is over in 5 minutes. Arya stuffs her ear buds into the front pocket of her bookbag with her phone, pulls out the books for her next class as she waits for Mr. Lannister to dismiss the group and avoids making eye contact with the too-cute-and-old-for-her-senior boy who currently occupies the other half of the table.  
  
She makes a bee line to the door the moment Mr. Lannister gives them the go ahead.  
  
“See you here tomorrow?” Podrick asks as he catches up to her easily.  
  
“Uh, yeah. Bye.” She squeaks out with an awkward wave as she spots Sansa in the sea of people in the open-air hallway and practically sprints to her.  
  
“Hey sister! What’s got you in a rush?” Sansa questions as soon as Arya can drag her into an empty classroom.  
  
“I just had my free period, and I was in the library studying, I know hold your applause, and this guy started talking to me and Sansa he’s _really cute_ but he’s a senior and I don’t even turn sixteen for another month and oh my god what do I do?” Arya tells her in one in breath, pacing her way up and down the aisle of the classroom they are in.  
  
“First of all, calm down for just a sec. Second, I’m really proud of how seriously you’re already taking this school year Arya. And third, just who exactly are we talking about?”  
  
“Uh. I didn’t get a last name, because I kinda panicked, but Podrick?” Arya grimaces and shrugs her shoulders when she gives her sister the name.  
  
Sansa takes a moment to look thoughtfully before she nods her head and returns the shrug.  
  
“Podrick Payne. You could do worse. He’s almost painfully awkward at times but pulls better grades than I do and has like, been the stage manager for the theater department since we were sophomores. Also, he’s not so bad to look at.” Sansa explains to her while she casually picks at a nail bed and frowns.  
  
“Should I tell Jon that last bit?” Arya can’t help but ask as she starts to head to the door.  
  
“ _What?_ No! Why would _Jon_ care? We’re just _friends!_ ” Her sister yells down the hall at her, half the students who are still milling about stop and look at her.  
  
“Whatever you say!” Arya hollers back as she heads to her next class.  
  
***  
  
After that day, Arya actually finds herself looking forward to her free period, though she’ll tell anyone who wants to listen it has nothing to the cute senior boy who sometimes helps her with her homework and has funny stories about the theater geeks.  
  
“You should come to the show this weekend.” Podrick says a few weeks later, and he does that thing where he rubs the back of his neck when he’s nervous as he says it.  
  
“Oh yeah. Musicals are much more Sansa’s thing, so I could probably convince her to bring me.” She fakes thinking out loud, since she asked Sansa weeks ago to bring her to the musical.  
  
“You could probably even drive her car if you ask nice enough.” Podrick smiles at her, that full grin that nearly breaks his face in two.  
  
Arya had turned sixteen two weeks ago and passed her permit test last Wednesday.  
  
“She’s only 18, so she can’t supervise my driving yet. But Jon could.”  
  
Jon, who was officially dating Sansa after Robb walked in on them making out over AP English notes a couple days before her birthday, was 20 and an actual adult and didn’t mind letting Arya drive _everywhere_ in the last week and a half.  
  
“Sounds like a date then.” Podrick says, his eyes getting comically wide as he realizes what he’s implied. “I mean, a date for Jon and Sansa. You’ll be in the audience and I’ll be running around like a crazy person back stage.”  
  
Arya laughs.  
  
“I knew what you meant. Don’t worry.” She says with the flirtatious smile she may have practiced in the mirror several times as she got ready this morning.  
  
Podrick smiles back, then furrows his far too perfect eyebrows.  
  
“Um.” He starts before he clears his throat. “Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to join me at the after party? It’s normally cast and crew and like, significant others, but honestly most of the theater kids are hooking up with each other, or are ex’s, but it’s really chill, just a bunch of pizzas and soda in the cafeteria after the show is done.”  
  
Arya would have stopped him after he asked the question, but then Podrick started to ramble and over the last couple weeks Arya has learned that Podrick is really cute when he rambles.  
  
She tries to play coy instead.  
  
“Um. Yeah. Sure. It sounds like fun.”  
  
“It kinda runs late, so Jon and Sansa probably won’t want to sit around and wait for you, but I’ll make sure you get home safe.” He adds quickly as Mr. Lannister simply yells from his desk “You’re free delinquents!” as he’s been increasingly doing ever since he found out the tall blonde lady guidance counselor is dating the ginger haired theater teacher.  
  
“Oh okay. Cool.” Arya says calmly as she gives Podrick her customary short wave before finding the closest girls room and making her way into a stall so she can freak out in private.  
  
***  
Arya remembers exactly nothing about the musical, she has been so caught up in Podrick and meeting all his friends for the last hour and laughing with them all that she can’t find herself to be too bothered by that fact either.  
  
It didn’t hurt that when she met him outside of the theater doors she caught him changing his shirt and despite the super nerdy persona he had, Podrick was also a _“complete babe”_ in the words of her sister, and she had seen enough to know that was true.  
  
It also didn’t hurt that he greeted her with a hug and gods did he smell good despite having spent all day running around the stage and then he kept an arm slung over her shoulder as they walked back to the cafeteria and no, he didn’t introduce her as his _girlfriend_ but he stumbled over his introductions enough that Arya was certain he thought of her in _that way._  
  
The night went quickly and before Arya knew it, she found herself in Podrick’s front seat as he input her address on his phones navigation system.  
  
“I had a lot of fun. You’re friends are cool.” She finds herself saying to fill the silence.  
  
Podrick laughs.  
  
“No, they really aren’t. I would say I would tell them, but being deemed cool by one of the Starks might be too much for their nerdy hearts.” He says casually, one hand on the wheel while the other rests near hers on the center consol.  
  
She crosses the space in between them before she losses her nerve and laces their fingers together. Podrick grins to himself and squeezes her hand lightly.  
  
“Well I think you’re cool and it hasn’t been too much for your nerdy heart.”  
  
They’re at a stop sign, under a streetlight, with no one behind them and thank the gods, because Podrick’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead and he throws the car into park before he turns to her. He doesn’t even give her a moment to respond before he cups her cheeks with his calloused hands and brushes their lips together.  
  
It takes Arya about three, maybe four, seconds total to react, as she reaches up and wraps her hands around the back of his neck and practically pulls him across the center consol and into her seat. This kiss is much less chaste than the brushing of lips he had originally started, and Arya finds herself gasping when she feels his tongue on the seem of her mouth and _oh_ this is French kissing, this is _wonderful_ , everyone should do this. Just not with Podrick, she’s definitely the only one who should be doing this with Podrick.  
  
When they break apart after quite possibly minutes, or maybe several sunlit days, Podrick grins as he rests his forehead on hers.  
  
“You honestly have no idea what you do to my nerdy heart Arya.”  
  
Arya grins right back.  
  
“Well I have an idea after that, but I might need to be shown again to make sure I figured it out.”  
  
Podrick laughs.  
  
“That can be arranged.” He says as he leans in once again.  
  
\--------  
  
You can find me [HERE](bex-xo.tumblr.com) on Tumblr if you wanna :) 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Podrya really is so much fun for me to write, because who doesn't enjoy a good crackship right?


End file.
